Troops pound rebel-held Syrian towns, destroy bridge

Damascus: Syrian forces on Tuesday pounded rebel-held towns and blasted a bridge used by refugees to escape to Lebanon, a monitoring group said, as fears grew for the safety of civilians caught in the crossfire.

The violence comes amid a flurry of diplomatic initiatives launched separately by the Arab League, the United Nations, Russia and China — all aimed at ending the year-long tumult in Syria which the UN says has killed at least 7,500 people.

Soldiers in tanks and armoured carriers stormed the town of Herak in the province of Daraa, while army deserters clashed with troops overnight in villages of Deir Ezzor, eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based watchdog also reported that troops backed by tanks circled the town of Tibet Al Imam in the central province of Hama and sent artillery shells crashing into Maaret Al Numan city in northwestern Idlib province.

Central flashpoint

The head of the Observatory, Rami Abdul Rahman, said in Beirut that Syrian forces yesterday also bombed a bridge used to evacuate the wounded and refugees to Lebanon from the central flashpoint province of Homs. The bridge was in the village of Rableh, some three kilometers (nearly two miles) from the Lebanese border, and straddles the Orontes River.

Fierce assault

Hadi Abdallah, a Syrian activist in Homs, said the bridge was used last week to transport wounded French reporter Edith Bouvier out of Homs, which has been the target of a fierce assault by regime forces.

"The bridge was hit by artillery shells," said Abdallah, reached by telephone from Beirut. "It can no longer be used."

The International Committee of the Red Cross, meanwhile, negotiated for a fourth day yesterday with Syrian authorities to be allowed to deliver aid and evacuate the wounded from the battered Baba Amr rebel district of Homs.

Rebel fighters retreated from Baba Amr last Thursday in the face of a ground assault by Syrian forces after almost a month of shelling, with fleeing residents giving terrifying accounts of atrocities by government troops.